The Benzidine Rearrangement

Note The directions are designed for semimicro work. For macro use five times the amounts given. 

The benzidine rearrangement involves the action of strong mineral acids on hydrazobenzene to form 4,4 -diaminodiphenyl, or benzidine. 

As shown by the above equation, the rearrangement involves rupture of the N-N bond and rotation of the radicals. Another method of stating the rearrangement (which makes no assumption as to the mechanism) is that it involves a migration of the amino to the para positions. When these positions are occupied by another group an incomplete arrangement, called semidine rearrangement, takes place. 

Other rearrangements closely related to this type are those reactions in which there is a migration of amino groups (or atoms at- 

The object of this experiment is to prepare hydrazobenzene, rearrange it to benzidine, and finally eliminate the two amino groups to form biphenyl. 

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The conversion of a hydrazobenzene into a diaminodiphenyl upon treatment with acid is termed the benzidine rearrangement. The following mechanism for the formation of benzidine from hydrazobenzene appears reasonable ... 

Hydrazobenzene 1 (1,2-diphenyl hydrazine) is converted to benzidine 2 (4,4 -diaminobiphenyl) under acidic conditions.This unusual reaction is called the benzidine rearrangement, and can be observed with substituted diphenyl hydrazines as well. 

The benzidine rearrangement is of interest for mechanistic considerations. The preparative applicability may be limited because of the many side products, together with low yields. Furthermore benzidine is a carcinogenic compound. ... 

Heating of an aryl hydrazone 1 in the presence of a catalyst leads to elimination of ammonia and formation of an indole 2. This reaction is known as the Fischer indole synthesisy and is somewhat related to the Benzidine rearrangement. 

It is important for acid-catalysed reactions to determine whether the reaction is specifically catalysed by hydrogen ions or whether general acid catalysis takes place. Specific acid catalysis has been conclusively demonstrated for the benzidine rearrangement by three different sorts of kinetic experiments. In the first, it has been shown41 by the standard test for general acid catalysis (by measuring the rate of reaction in a buffered solution at constant pH over a range of concentration... 

Secondly, it has been found that the benzidine rearrangement is subject to a solvent isotope effect d2o/ h2o > 1- If a proton is transferred from the solvent to the substrate in a rate-determining step the substitution of protium by deuterium will lead to a retardation in the rate of reaction (primary isotope effect) whereas if a proton is transferred in a fast equilibrium step preceeding the rate-determining step as in... 

There is one further piece of kinetic evidence which throws light on an aspect of the benzidine rearrangement mechanism, and this is comparison of the rates of reaction of ring-deuterated substrates with the normal H compounds. If the final proton-loss from the benzene rings is in any way rate-determining then substitution of D for H would result in a primary isotope effect with kD < kH. This aspect has been examined in detail42 for two substrates, hydrazobenzene itself where second-order acid dependence is found and l,l -hydrazonaphthalene where the acid dependence is first-order. The results are given in Tables 2 and 3. 

Two other theories as to the mechanism of the benzidine rearrangement have been advocated at various times. The first is the rc-complex mechanism first put forward and subsequently argued by Dewar (see ref. 1 pp 333-343). The theory is based on the heterolysis of the mono-protonated hydrazo compound to form a n-complex, i.e. the formation of a delocalised covalent it bond between the two rings which are held parallel to each other. The rings are free to rotate and product formation is thought of as occurring by formation of a localised a-bond between appropriate centres. Originally the mechanism was proposed for the one-proton catalysis but was later modified as in (18) to include two-protons, viz. 

A. Cooper, Mechanism of the benzidine rearrangement, Ph. D. Thesis, London, 1966. 

Scheme 13 may look unfavorable on the face of it, but in fact the second two reactions are thermally allowed 10- and 14-electron electrocyclic reactions, respectively. The aromatic character of the transition states for these reactions is the major reason why the benzidine rearrangement is so fast in the first place.261 The second bimolecular reaction is faster than the first rearrangement (bi-molecular kinetics were not observed) it is downhill energetically because the reaction products are all aromatic, and formation of three molecules from two overcomes the entropy factor involved in orienting the two species for reaction. 

Micellar rate enhancements of bimolecular, non-solvolytic reactions are due largely to increased reactant concentrations at the micellar surface, and micelles should favor third- over second-order reactions. The benzidine rearrangement typically proceeds through a two-proton transition state (Shine, 1967 Banthorpe, 1979). The first step is a reversible pre-equilibrium and in the second step proton transfer may be concerted with N—N bond breaking (17) (Bunton and Rubin, 1976 Shine et al., 1982). Electron-donating substituents permit incursion of a one-proton mechanism, probably involving a pre-equilibrium step. 

As a result of these heavy-atom KIE experiments the principal features of the benzidine rearrangements have now been firmly established. The two main products arise from two parallel reactions one of which is concerted and the other is not. Other concerted processes have been identified and all of the concerted processes can be readily classified in the terminology of sigmatropic rearrangements within the general class of percyclic reactions. 

The benzidine rearrangements can also be brought about thermally, but very few mechanistic studies have been carried out. One set of heavy-atom KIE measurements has been made in the reaction of 2,2 -hydrazonaphthalene (18)21. Substantial nitrogen (1.0611 for the [15N, 15N ]) and carbon (1.0182 for the [1,1 -13C2]) KIE values were obtained showing that, just as for the acid catalysed reaction, this is a [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement, this time presumably of the non-protonated reactant. 

Similarly, a number of 2-(2-arylhydrazino) tropones undergo the benzidine rearrangement when treated with HC1 in EtOH to give 2-amino-5-(4-aminoaryl)tropones, which can be hydrolysed to the corresponding 5-aryl-tropolones. This is a useful route to a synthesis for open B ring colchine analogues25. 

In some way formally similar to the benzidine rearrangement is the Wallach rearrangement of azoxybenzene 23 to give 4-hydroxyazobenzene 24 in concentrated (typically 95%) H2SO4. The 2-hydroxy isomer is sometimes formed in low yield with some substituted azoxybenzenes, and it is the main product in the photochemically induced reaction. Much of what is known about the reaction has been covered in earlier review articles28-30. This contribution will report work published since 1981. 

No evidence has been forthcoming on the nature of the intramolecular shift of the NO group to the 4-position (generally) in the aromatic ring. It would be helpful to have KIE values such as those obtained for the benzidine rearrangement as a first step in order to see if rearrangement is a concerted process. 

The most recent addition to Shine s extensive study of the benzidine-type rearrangements41 involved remeasuring the nitrogen and the carbon-13 and carbon-14 kinetic isotope effects at the 4- and at the 4- and 4 -carbons as well as determining the carbon-13 and carbon-14 isotope effects at the 1- and at the 1- and l -carbons in the benzidine rearrangement of hydrazobenzene (equation 30). The reaction, which was carried out in 75% aqueous ethanol that was 0.1 M in hydrochloric acid and 0.3 M in lithium chloride at 0°C, gave an 86% yield of benzidine (11) and a 14% yield of diphenyline (12). The kinetic isotope effects found for the formation of benzidine and diphenyline under these reaction conditions are presented in Table 5. 

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